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Vintage Flipper World

Fresh Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·59m 35s·analyzed·May 25, 2024
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Fresh Pinball covers Stern tours, resto-mods, venue placements, Electric Playground partnership, and VFW show experience.

Summary

Fresh Pinball Podcast season 3 episode 2 covers recent events including a factory tour by Don Garrison and others at Stern, delivery of classic games to various venues (Tales from the Crypt to Don, Whitewater resto-mod praise, Indiana Jones/Rush/NASCAR trio at Holy Moly Brewing), new partnerships with Electric Playground toppers and Chicago Gaming's Pinball Olympics, and extensive recounting of VFW (likely Vintage Flipper World) show experience with ~524 games where they brought Barry O's Barbecue Challenge and Pulp Fiction for 200+ plays.

Key Claims

  • Jason Knapp of Knapp Arcade found a Pinball 2000 whitewood signed by George Gomez in a shipping container

    medium confidence · Hosts discussing fact-check from season premiere; Jason reportedly messaged pictures but details still pending

  • Don Garrison and other influencers did full factory tour at Stern on Thursday/Friday to play all three versions of John Wick

    high confidence · Hosts mention it happening 'right now' during recording and confirm Don is getting a John Wick LE to take home from factory

  • VFW event had nearly 600 games (524 confirmed as of May, 526 with R2)

    high confidence · Hosts initially overestimate, then host corrects with specific count from May records

  • Whitewater resto-mod is superior to original 1992 version and will remain in collection

    medium confidence · Host's opinion based on play experience; claims it's 'literally the best Whitewater we will ever come across' and won't leave despite offers

  • Fresh Pinball/Mad Pinball is now distributing Electric Playground toppers starting mid-June

    high confidence · Official partnership announcement; toppers available through Mad Pinball website by mid-June

  • Fresh Pinball sponsoring Pinball Olympics at Expo through connection to Pinball Life and Chicago Gaming

    high confidence · Jeff announces new partnership/sponsorship detail; more details coming for Expo

  • Tales from the Crypt was designed by John Borg

    high confidence · Host confirms 'That's Borg, isn't it? It is. Yeah' in response to Data East title discussion

  • Barry's Barbecue Challenge and Pulp Fiction brought to VFW received 200+ plays over two days

    high confidence · Hosts report 100 plays per day across Friday/Saturday at the event

Notable Quotes

  • “I'm going to give you this little nug now. This little bit of happiness. Jeff knows how to bump me back.”

    Corbin @ ~mid-episode — Humorous dynamic showing partnership rapport while announcing Pinball Olympics sponsorship

  • “I've never met a motherfucker in my life that can just put up a score for no reason. Let me just do one real quick game.”

    Kyle @ ~early-mid episode — Reaction to Zach's high Whitewater score on first play; indicates frustration with casual high-scoring ability

  • “I'm going to say this is the best Whitewater we will ever come across, so I don't, spoiler, Aaron, it's not leaving.”

    Jeff @ ~early episode — Strong endorsement of resto-mod Whitewater quality; indicates permanence in collection

  • “You realize that he's the one who owns mad pinball right? Like he's not my little helper he has forgotten more about pinball”

    Jeff @ ~mid-episode — Humorous social experiment showing customer misunderstanding of Corbin's role; establishes Corbin's expertise

  • “It's like we pull up to the building and immediately it's like oh who are you guys what are you doing oh you have pinball yeah yeah yeah right this way”

    Kyle @ ~late episode — VFW reception highlights prestige of pinball machines at event; immediate VIP treatment

  • “There is nothing more frustrating... to where you are waiting your turn, and then the person in front of you starts a second game.”

    Jeff @ ~late episode — Commentary on pinball etiquette at shows; reflects broader community behavior discussion

Entities

Don GarrisonpersonGeorge GomezpersonJason KnapppersonJeffpersonCorbinpersonKylepersonKeithpersonPhilperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Fresh Pinball/Mad Pinball becoming sponsor of Pinball Olympics through connection to Chicago Gaming and Pinball Life

    high · Jeff announces sponsorship involvement after Expo; plans more details coming

  • ?

    community_signal: Stern factory tours providing exclusive access to new releases and three-tier versions; influencers receiving promotional units (Don Garrison receiving John Wick LE from factory)

    high · Hosts confirm Don at factory with Jason Knapp and other influencers; being gifted/purchasing John Wick LE to take home

  • ?

    event_signal: VFW (Vintage Flipper World) major community event with ~524 pinball games; Fresh Pinball brought two games receiving 200+ plays; small attendance (~50 people) created positive play experience

    high · Hosts extensively describe VFW logistics, game counts, crowd dynamics, and positive reception

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Positive reception to VFW event format with smaller crowd enabling deeper gameplay engagement and social interaction versus typical tournament pressure

    high · Kyle describes camping on games, achieving personal best scores due to fresh condition and relaxed environment; hosts praise social aspects

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Resto-mod approach positioned as superior to original when executed properly; claims Whitewater restoration superior to 1992 original with modern upgrades

    medium · Host states: 'that a resto mod done the right way is maybe better than an all-original game because this thing is just...' and refuses to part with heavily documented restoration project

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.179

0:00
Welcome everyone to season 3 episode 2 of the Fresh Pinball Podcast. Is that what we're on? We're back! They said we wouldn't be back. Here we are. I thought we were on season five. I mean, we could probably, like, we could do a time. Season 10, episode 25. Some sort of, like, time jump here. I don't know. That's, like, the move, right? Is that, like, a time, the time machine in Junkyard, you know? Could be. I need Junkyard at my house. If we can make its rounds. So I saw Whodunit came out of Quarter Up. It did. Johnny Mnemonic went in. Johnny Mnemonic is in. The clock is set. I made sure I double-checked it while I was there today, when I set it there, obviously. And that thing's playing good. It's a fast-shooting George Gomez classic. I had it at my house for a long time. I feel like I really intimately got to know it. Those Art Blades. The Art Blades definitely stepped that one up. What, you went red flipper bands on there? I think so. I want to look at a picture. It's a sweet-looking game. The gloves working like it should. The side art on that one adds to it too much. If you need a custom topper, you can email fresh Kyle at his email.com. I think the only thing – Yeah, I went with a lot of red rubbers. It still needs color DMDs. It does. Absolutely. That's like the final little move. You know I've been on the fence like teetering on just doing a bulk color DMD order. So, I mean, we need to – I think Keith said it was like a pretty nice little discount once you get to a corner. I think a Mustang guy named, not Steve, but in Columbus, he told us that too. He got like 50 bucks off, 60 bucks off or something. Pete. Thank you, Pete. I talked to Pete the other day. He's thinking about a Bond Premium, upgrading his pro to a premium. He's got that cool. Everything. Yeah. Well, I mean, I was going to say on his Bond Pro, I was thinking he has the mod where it adds. I mean, it's not even, I wouldn't even call that a mod. Like sometimes I think mods like more like, you know, little trinkets or whatever. but this is like a full-on... He has the one that returns it to your left flipper from the little scuba area. On the left, yeah. That's pretty cool. I'd like to play it, but I don't know if... I'm not sure if he lets us touch his games or not. He's very particular. He is, and that's cool. I'm totally cool with it. I don't want to be responsible for it, but I wouldn't mind playing that game. No. I think we need to get in on one of those league nights over there in Columbus whenever they're either at Pete's house or someone else's house and just invite ourselves. Do you think if we play in that kind of situation, would we have to be polite and not lose or win? Do we bring a game to contribute? What's the etiquette at these things? We just show up with Zach, System 11 night. Yeah, it's fine. We show up whenever. Pete had some not to talk about his personal collection but he had a diverse collection. It wasn't your standard LE, whatever. Everything from original Rolling Stones through the newest Spike 2s. It was a cool spot. When we dipped down in the basement, it was like, oh. I wouldn't have mind being just chained to the wall there. I would have been okay with that. All right, let's hit a little bit of a recap here from the season premiere of season three, the premiere episode. A little fact check.
Stern Pinballcompany
John Wickgame
Whitewatergame
Tales from the Cryptgame
Barry's Barbecue Challengegame
Pulp Fictiongame
Electric Playgroundcompany
Chicago Gamingcompany
Pinball Olympicsevent
VFW (Vintage Flipper World)event
Holy Moly Brewing Companyorganization
Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventuregame
Rushgame
NASCARgame
Nate and Mikeyperson
John Borgperson
Big Bang Bargame
  • $

    market_signal: Aftermarket topper market evidencing strong demand; Electric Playground expanding production with distribution partnerships (Lebowski, Twilight, Godzilla, Scooby-Doo toppers in pipeline)

    high · Electric Playground producing multiple toppers; Fresh Pinball taking on distribution; hosts excited about variety and quality

  • ?

    business_signal: Fresh Pinball establishing distribution partnership with Electric Playground for custom toppers; direct sales through Mad Pinball website starting mid-June

    high · Jeff announces: 'We're going to be distributing their toppers. Shortly, by the middle of next month in June, you'll be able to order those directly from the Mad Pinball website'

  • ?

    community_signal: Customer confusion over Corbin's role suggesting indie operator ownership not widely recognized; indicates consolidation of manufacturing/operation under Fresh Pinball brand

    medium · Host recounts customer calling Corbin 'helper' despite being Mad Pinball owner; reveals consolidation dynamics

  • ?

    product_strategy: Fresh Pinball active in venue operator channel; placing classic/restored games at bars and brewing companies (Holy Moly Brewing Company trio, Tales from the Crypt to Don's location)

    high · Multiple mentions of deliveries and placements to various venues including Holy Moly Brewing with Rush/Indiana Jones/NASCAR

  • ?

    venue_signal: Repurposed church venues gaining popularity in pinball community (Holy Moly Brewing Company and Rochester venue); aesthetic considerations matter to operators and players

    medium · Hosts compare two repurposed church venues; note Holy Moly maintained church feeling while Rochester lost it despite good layout

    • 3:32
    We're going to talk about, so Jason Knapp of Knapp Arcade, after listening to that episode, shout out, Jason, for listening to the podcast, he emailed me and messaged me some pictures of a pinball 2000 whitewood that he ran across that was his neck of the woods super cool it was in a shipping container and it was signed by george gomez so imagine the legit poking around in the shipping container being like hey what's that back there like i don't know some some scribbles over all over some piece of wood the problem for me would be walking away without acquiring that piece you're like what's it going to take? Oh, for sure. I would absolutely be all in. I need this on my wall right now. You'd have to first assess, does this person know what they have? Exactly. And maybe it could have been from an auction, too. Like a lot. It's like a passing by or whatever.
    4:24
    Did you ever get more information about the guy's history with the Whitewood or anything? I didn't. How he came? Jason said he was going to connect me up, so I'm just waiting for that. Speaking of which, Jason Knapp and Don Garrison of Don's Pinball Podcast, A few other influencers in the pinball hobby are at Stern right now, Thursday and Friday, doing the full factory tour. They're getting to play all three versions of John Wick, so I'm really interested to hear kind of the takeaways from that. I'm not cool enough for that kind of stuff. I mean – I don't know if I'd want to go anyway. Yeah, that's – If we're being honest. I mean I definitely want to do a tour there eventually. Yes, yes. Tour, yes. I don't want the pressure of them standing there staring at me like, do you like this game? like what if i don't like exactly and we're like oh yeah it's cool so spoiler alert this will probably go out maybe before don announces but anybody that's listening don is getting a john wick le and we were trying to hook him up to where when he leaves the factory tomorrow he gets to take his le with him that'd be sweet so the word was initially that they were only going to have foreign ones the export games boxed up but that they're working on it to where it's possible Because he was saying, I'll take my game unboxed. Like I'll just wrap it in a drink wrap. And throw it on the back of the truck. It's like picking up a Corvette from the factory. He has a truck, yeah. Ford F-150 situation. So speaking of all of that, so post-VFW, myself, Kyle, Keith, and Phil had two deliveries to do post-VFW. One of them was to Don of Don's Pinball Podcast, and he was working a shift or a job near Port Clinton, Ohio. So we dropped off Tales from the Crypt there for Don, and he had it the week that he was doing the drop. He got a good game. I mean, he got a good deal. That's a fun game. Classic Data East. Yeah. Data East, as much as I like to shit on them sometimes because they suck, that one's not bad. It's not. Dude, it's one of the good ones. That's Borg, isn't it? It is. Yeah, and it has some cool shots. It has some cool mechs. I mean, cool modes. That was another one as a kid I remember always just playing all the time. Yeah, absolutely. We had that around. I remember selling that early because it was just a hard one to place. It was just so gory. People just didn't. It's not friendly. Not a crowd. Not like Looney Tunes or something. But it's definitely Don, as soon as he saw it, he's like, oh, yeah, immediately in front of me ordered a color DMD for it to liven it up and bring it into the 2000s and whatnot. But while he was in Ohio, he scooped us.
    6:56
    Somebody up there at the hospital while he was working heard that he was into pinball and they hooked him up with somebody that had a Gottlieb wipeout in their basement. So he, he didn't take one game home with him back to Wisconsin. I wouldn't, a wipeout? I know, that's a neat game. It'd be, I'm just thinking, it'd be good for Nate Mikey's trailer. Oh, I've been looking for the perfect game and I think wipeout might be the perfect game. I know. What's he doing with it? I don't know. Whenever he's done with it, he might need to talk to us. God, piss up. You know, you know how to get all of us. I don't know if he's listening or not. Probably not. He usually listens. He always does his stuff so over the top it might be out of our price range. Yeah, that one I couldn't see. I mean, it's not like there are a ton of aftermarket mods that are available for that. Yeah, but he makes his own. He made that chicken bucket. The dude's crafty. He could be 3D printing some stuff. So in further news, the other sale post-VFW was Frankenstein. So Frankenstein has a new home. He's out there. He's doing all of the things, having a good time. Living his life. Living his best life. Frankenstein. I don't know if he's living his best life. He's living a life. Hopefully he finds a better home. Somebody adopts him. Someone adopts him. Someone. In further fact check news from the previous episode, Whitewater, it's here. It's so good.
    8:16
    Any doubts that we had. Good thing Kyle had to step away for a second, which is good because he's complaining no one's invited him. You can come over to our house anytime. He knows anytime. Anyway, that game is shooting. Oh, I don't think any doubts that we had about the only thing that is not. So I think the attract noises are a lot more than the original, which also could have just been how my other one was set. Who knows what code we have in our. So now we have the old. That's right. How old? One version earlier. Oh, so not that.
    8:46
    So that could be part of it. That was my noticeable difference. and the other differences, the topper is still epic, but I'm just so, I'm not, it's not the same. It doesn't have the same effect, and I'm not complaining, I'm just saying, other than that, the game is like, literally the best, this, I have no doubt that this is the best Whitewater we will ever come across, so I don't, spoiler, Aaron, it's not leaving. You can borrow it, but that's not it. Friendly trade, friendly trade. Yeah, yeah. We'll do some. But I don't, I think this is going to be one we're going to have to keep, and I, we'll definitely get it in front of the people, because it's, you've got to play this thing. I suspect it might be better than playing an original like in 92 when it came out. This might be better than it was then. I don't disagree. I mean you put me on. Because he's the mirrored backlash. I mean he has all the upgrades. I mean it's. You put me on to the pin side thread that he put together as he was building this. I'll link it to our Instagram so everyone can check it out. But it's absolutely epic the depth that this gentleman went into to get this game built. I mean, he went to the community with questions, comments, all of that stuff. And, I mean, it's literally from beginning to end. And the only part on that game, as far as I can tell, and I haven't read through all of it yet, but, like, I read through it. Nine pages. Yeah, which isn't that much, I mean, for Pennside. For Pennside, there's terrorists. But he, the only thing that wasn't brand new was the cabinet, as far as I can tell. Everything else, though, and it plays. Which was an Addams Family cabinet originally, we found out. But I thought the depths that he went to to research just the differences between the cabinets because there was something to where he had to fill in and do something. The notch. The notch that was up by the head on the cabinet. I mean, just it was insane. And I had the game at my house for about two weeks. And I told Corbin, hey, you need to absolutely get this out of here or it's never leaving my house because I'm only playing that game. I wasn't playing anything else. And I was just obsessed with it. So finally, we drug it out of my house, drug it into Corbin's house. Whenever John Wick showed up, he wanted John Wick. That's why I wanted to put some time on John Wick.
    10:53
    But we get it into your house and I'm having a nice game on it when Corbin and I are playing it. I do like three or four hundred million. I'm feeling, you know, pretty swanky. And then, of course, the next day, Zach plays it. Very first game he puts up on it. First walked in. Eight hundred million. I got time for one game. I've never met a motherfucker in my life that can just put up a score for no reason. Let me just do one real quick game. He's like, I'll just hit the ramps. So Jeff put up a 535. Yeah, I was 535, yeah. And then I put up an 885.
    11:23
    You were hitting those. You were getting the stupid points because you had five times going, and you were hitting like double, triple jackpots, and it was just like every jackpot was over 100 mil. That sounds like some strategies. 100 mil, yes. I get 5X play field, then I start multi-ball, and then I get three jackpots in a row. That's the way to do it. I mean, it's good points. I do think I shared that theory with you a long time ago. Logan, we were in Chicago, I think. I know. And after I got some time on it, I got it figured out. Executed it. But no, I'm definitely happy to report that that game is everything we hoped it would be and probably more. It puts to rest for me that a resto mod done the right way is maybe better than an all-original game because this thing is just... I mean, we had that conversation. I said personally A brand new game It's a brand new game And then after Searching through that thread a little bit I still haven't personally played it yet But going through You know where to find it We know where What's your address again Corbin?
    12:30
    345 5th street Julie Avenue Come on over anytime But no Whitewater like I said It is definitely happy. We are happy to report that it is amazing. We're going to get it out there. I think we're going to get some stuff done, finished up on Corbin's original Whitewater. That way we can have a little side-by-side comparison. Absolutely. Also, did you know Norman did Demolition Man? Yeah. I did not realize that until today. I don't think I knew that. Sorry. Random side note talking about Whitewater Man. That game is bizarre. It's weird. I forgot I had it. Or you get better bonuses by using the handle. The triggers. Oh, no, all points or more using the handles. Well, I know when it goes to, like, calculate your bonus at the end, you get, like, a kicker for that, which is cool. Yeah. All right, quick announcement here for Mad Pinball and the Electric Playground. I think we've probably talked about the Electric Playground before. Sick toppers. The Big Lebowski topper we talked about. And then we've done events with them. We've done that. Yeah, they've done the Godzilla toppers. I believe we have the only location in the world that has both of them still. Twilight and Godzilla and it's about to have all three Twilight's fucking sick next line I don't even like that game I think Twilight's the best so far I'm excited to see Lebowski that ball though, the mech with the gumball and everything they came out firing have they announced what their next one is? we probably can't talk about it I can't talk about it but I will say The announcement is that Mad Pinball and the Electric Playground, we're going to be working together, and we're going to be distributing their toppers. So shortly, by the middle of next month in June, you'll be able to order those directly from the Mad Pinball website, and we'll get everybody hooked up. But, yeah, our Lebowski topper is coming next week. We'll get that put on top of the Lebowski a quarter up. Scooby-Doo topper showed up today, too. Electric Playground has amazing toppers. I can't wait to do this, not to discount their stuff at all, but I just thought of this. Did you unbox it? Come on. It was in at the end of the day, and I had to do like three more things and then do four more things to get it. Which is the official additional Scooby-Doo top. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is the one with the bookcase that opens up that has the screen behind it So yeah I definitely excited to see that I slightly regretting selling our Scooby So that be on top of the Scooby at Unhitched Brewing Company in Louisville Ohio We'll go throw it on here sometime soon. So in addition to us now working even more closely with the electric playground, I've not even told you this yet, Corbin, but this is going to get us involved with? Chicago Gaming. The Pinball Olympics. Oh. Talk to me. So apparently Robin knows some of the folks over at Pinball Life pretty intimately, which then connects to the Pinball Olympics. So for Expo, he invited us to be a part of a poster program for the Pinball Olympics. So we're going to be doing a little sponsorship for that. So more details to come on Pinball Olympics. What do you want? You hide games from me? You hold out shit like this? Corbin, he's just looking out for your best interest. No, this is it. I got to wait until you have that little frowny frown on your face. You're a little tired. You're a little worn out. And then I'm like, I'm going to give you this little nug now. This little bit of happiness. Jeff knows how to bump me back. Thanks, Papa Jeff. Some more excitement coming there with the pinball Olympics. It's going to be a good time for us to be even more involved after being blown away by that last year. I am so ready. I'm just going to say first off, as the reigning champ, I was going to say that. but I'm excited to do it again to be involved after seeing it last year one of my biggest takeaways was how can we help, how can we be involved how can we become part of this community out here we're all on the same wavelength this is it we're not necessarily tournament players no I'm more of an Olympics player than I am a tournament player I care less about tournaments Olympics is my that's my year The whole vibe of that whole thing was great. Yeah, so to be involved with that, more details to come for sure, but I'm excited for that. That's awesome. Damn. So another follow-up is the games are officially in at Holy Moly Brewing Company in Denison, Ohio. We have what games, Corbin? What's our trio of pinball machines? We've got Rush, totally decked out Rush down there. With the topper, the expression lines. New, new play field. I think that maybe has like 1,000 to 1,500 plays on it so far in that play field. She's a beaut. Oh, she's Clark. And then in the middle of the trio, we had Indiana Jones, the pinball adventure, the wide body with the gun shooter and all the awesome mechs inside. Corbin had one of this in his house the last year or so, and he did a full rebuild on this thing and just cheering it out. A lot of extra lights to brighten it up a little bit. We went a little wild with it, but it's shooting nice. She plays nice. Looking good. And then all the way to the right, we got NASCAR, baby. Which seems... Go fast, turn left. Just go. I love the lap. The laps around. With all the five magnets pulling.
    17:53
    Shoot the test car. Test car is fun to hit. Shoot the ramps. Yeah. Shoot the ramps. And then we have an arcade game in there. It's Ms. Pac-Man for now, about to be upgraded to a reunion cab that will have... Galaga. Galaga and Ms. Pac-Man. I think I'm going to run. Probably have to end up doing it like tomorrow after five. So I'll probably make it down there. Yeah. So some excitement and some fun down there. Definitely. If you're in the area, T County, Ohio, go check them out. Grab yourself a brew. Yeah. They got some games. It's as we've talked about in previous episodes in a old church. So it's got a lot of windows. They reuse the pews for seating. That one compared to the one, the other one we went to in Rochester, as far as like a repurposed church that one still had like the church vibe the rochester one was cool at a very good layout the aesthetic but it didn't at all feel like inside did not at all feel like a church like you did at the holy moly yep so final item that i want to talk about from the fact check issue kyle kyle can speak to this a little bit on the way back we stopped in toledo ohio i'm looking for you know i'm always looking for something interesting to eat you know i'm always hungry i'm always a little bit good food man yeah so we have keith in the car i'm like keith what What are you thinking here? So he gets on the Google machine. He gets on the TripAdvisors, and he finds the craziest fast food place I've ever been in my life. It was called Tony Paco's. Is anybody at the table? Tony Paco's. It's Eastern European Hungarian fast food. Not what I was expecting. Tony, I'm not trying to – it's like real pasta or something. You want a hot dog? Here's a real plate to eat your freaking hot dog. Hot dog. So what did you guys get? Oh, I got the full platter. So they all got like two little things. I got the full platter. Oh, a sample platter. But they had hot dogs, chili, stuffed cabbage, chicken paprikas, pierogies. You did go back for a secondary hot dog. Well, yeah. Yeah. Of course. Because you got the. Because then I bought like the peppers and they had dill pickle suckers I got for Nora, and it was a whole thing. So shout out if you're up in the Toledo area. It's a chain, Tony Paco's. Check it out. You're not going to be disappointed. It wasn't bad. So let's talk some VFW about there, fellows. Let's talk some real deep. All right. I'll say for starters, there is a Patreon episode that will come out on a future date that was recorded. But heavily redacted. Yeah, yeah. I'm just saying I feel bad because we didn't get the snow cone, bros. It was our opportunity, and I would have liked to have gotten them on. So I'm going to mess it up. I think we need to get Nate and Mikey some AI. Corbin might have just been a little bit Oh I was the only one yeah VUK'd I drank Coors Light I was drinking Coors Light I wasn't that bad I'm the one who ruined the episode I won't talk about why But about halfway through I said some things Did you show your parents Well no I should not have been saying so We'll get them back on the next time they're in town Or maybe we'll go see them I'm down I'm fairly certain that I think that they So I saw a post the other day They're motorcycles. Mikey's motorcycles out there. I'm like, oh, shit. They're like out there full time now. When I saw that, I was like, they're not coming back here. Can you blame them, though? I mean, it's... No. What about us? We're here.
    21:12
    They want pinballs. They keep trying to get us to ship pinballs out there to them. Wipeout. We get a wipeout. We put it on the bus. Let's do it. Let's go. I'm in. I mean, we are already almost going to... Chicago gaming vacation. It's only about... It'll be about 30, 35 hours. We can park on the land out there. Ren doesn't care. Oh, yeah. down for whatever it doesn't have people use keep between lines as long as we have wi-fi i'm fine i can do my i can do my job anyway the helper has to go like fix stuff so all right quick sidebar so corbin i've been forcing corbin to go on some white glove deliveries and home calls with me because i get lonely and sometimes basements are scary so he's been kind enough a few mondays to go with me so we've had a regular customer who will remain nameless that we've been going to and i was on the phone with him the other day and he said hey uh what's the name of that guy that's been coming out with you your little helper what was his name again i'm like are you talking about corbin rosie he's like yeah yeah yeah like noren yeah whenever you come back out can you bring him with you i'm like you realize that he's the one who owns mad pinball right like he's not my little helper he has forgotten more about pinball it's kind of a social experiment i kind of enjoy it a little bit so for the record jeff managing partner corbin owner corbin jeff boss tank dog still a dog so back on to vfw um i know we had speculated hot and heavy of what we were going to take to the show itself, and we ended up taking Barry O's Barbecue Challenge and Chicago Gaming's Pulp Fiction.
    22:58
    TNA in the bus. We had TNA still in the bus. We'll talk about everything that was on the bus. We were talking about what we showed up with. So myself, Kyle, Keith, and Phil show up on Friday with these games, and you would have thought that we were like rock stars as we're unloading these games it's like we pull up to the building and immediately it's like oh who are you guys what are you doing oh you have pinball yeah yeah yeah right this way so they take us back to like the vip section we put them in you know someone's like little bungalow area where their bed and their kitchen and whatever else is we barely have these games plugged in and there's a line of like four people waiting to play this game all weekend the two games were just getting absolutely blitzed and annihilated what did we say 300 plays 200 plays and that's just the night and the day we because we'd love a lot that's right it was two days i mean we got there it was 100 plays a day yeah that's what it was time we get there friday it was like seven because we made a few i don't know as the helper i still had to buy my pass. The one who owns the games had to buy my fucking pass in. So as it turns out, the managing partner and director got in for free all weekend. So did I.
    24:16
    I'm just fine. So that was a good time. It was awesome getting those in there. That's a total different environment. Yeah, it's so different from everything else. I mean, it had to be less than 50 people, wouldn't you say?
    24:34
    I could play anything I wanted. Yeah, I mean, I camped out on Big Bang Bar is what I did. I played like half a dozen games on Big Bang Bar. Why wouldn't you? I mean, I tried playing half a dozen games on it during the Saturday. People are cranky. Well, my first thought was, first of all, it's not going to be all faded because it's been getting beat on all weekend on Friday. True. It should be fresh. And it was. Like, I'm putting up scores on it that I've never put up before, and I'm getting into things I've not done before. And I can hear it because there's not a bunch of people around. And plus, you're not like, I got to get this. I don't want to like, I want to play nice, but also like, you know, I know there's a line behind me. When you look around, you see a guy you can tell is clearly camping out waiting. Yeah. Like, okay, I got to finish my game. Because there is nothing more frustrating, and I ran into it a few times on Saturday, to where you are waiting your turn, and then the person in front of you starts a second game. Yes. And you start staring. Come on, buddy. A second four-player game. I was going to say, those were the ones that was getting me. When they were starting four-player games, one person, you're like, no, it's a joke. Move it. I fucking suck at pinball. You guys know this. Me too. But I really don't like the guy in front of me that felt the need. There's no need in a situation like that. Fader's rocking through him, too, because he sucked. It's just courtesy. Well, there's also the person at a show like that who is playing their three-ball game as if it's the finals of, like, the international tournament championship or whatever. Everything is on the line right now. They're throwing the game across the room. They're doing whatever. It's like, all right, we're just here to kind of experience these games, be respectful, have a good time. and everything else. We don't need to be going full on in this. I don't know.
    26:06
    But as it turns out, I think we said that there were nearly 600 games there. Overestimated just a tad. I looked as of May of this year, there were 524 games. So still. 26 counting R2. And 526 counting R2. But that was definitely a cool experience to be able to add to the event a little bit. and I know they were super appreciative of the entire, you know, of us making the effort. So it was neat to be able to provide that. It was nice to be able to represent a couple of our manufacturing partners. So it was a win-win all the way around. So what was your favorite game, Jeff, of the whole thing? I think I know what it is if I had to guess. I already know. What do you guys think it was? It was that one in the... That's right, it was. The one in the back building. The back building. It was a space-themed one. with the amazing ramps on it. It was so cool.
    27:00
    One of the cool things on it to me was, oh boy, Corbin showing pictures of me with hair. Oh man, look how good looking I was. You look so good, Jeff. So young. I never even thought of you having hair. You just assumed you never had hair. You came out bald and stayed that way. I came out this way. Nothing ever changed. What was it, Space Alien? Space Force? Oh, sorry. Yeah, I found a picture, but then I saw that and I got distracted. But the skill shot on it. So the skill shot. It has weird-ass ramps. Well, before you hit the ramps. A cam. Oh, yeah, yeah. The rotating cam on the ball guide. Yeah, the ball guide. And it's changed how the ball shot out. Which then it had the awesome ramps on it. It had a couple pop-up. I don't even want to call them targets because that's underselling it. But I'll post a picture of this as well. I'll say you buy all the good pictures. I have many pictures. I probably took like four. But outside of pinball, the big game for me there was the penny toss. Oh, that was sick. Because I know they had that there last year, but it wasn't working. You know I love games like that that are like you play against people. They're very simple, like the horseshoes, the pennies. So describe it a little bit, Corbin. Okay, so there's three different like scoops basically. Like funnels almost. Funnels, yeah, like funnels sticking out. And I think – I don't remember what the point range is. The top one was you move five spots. Five spots. The middle one was three spots, and the bottom one was one spot. And the idea was you had two horses that were racing around a track. Similar to some of the other ones where you spin it and you flip it. But based on whichever funnel you hit it in, essentially, with the pennies, you toss. There's a bucket of pennies. You throw your pennies in. I mean, for context. So I think originally. It's a back box, and it has a trough underneath. So you think originally, you probably obviously had to provide your own pennies, and that's how they made the money. Exactly. They get to keep whatever pennies went in, right? We were standing, what, about 10, 15 feet back. Roughly, yeah. And then you'd toss them underhand. And then you'd toss them, yeah. You'd toss them in and you'd race and basically whoever would win the race. And in the back box of it, you have two horses, two different colors, racing around the track. Different spots, yeah. Each time you hit five or whatever. And your funnel was tied into the same color that you were tossing your pennies into. So I can imagine. It was yellow and red. Exactly. A new version of that, but it's quarters. And the operator just keeps the quarters. Yeah, definitely. I'd be down for that all day and all night. we should probably make something like that I know I think that was a very cool one so there was what? to reverse engineer that to have not 10 or 12 of those it would be easy Jeff you just have to make the shape of the funnel and then an opto or something that would trip when you drop it down whatever you're going to find that's going to be reliable it was an opto too I sure that was old it was old but it had an opto it had an eye in there Very very cool So Kyle what was your game You were talking a little bit about a bowling game up there Was that the one that grabbed your eye? The bubble one? I like the bubble one. That one's up in the front, right, when you first come in? Yeah, yeah. Okay, that's when you say bowling. Right in the old school section. Yeah, the wood rail section. It's still the, like, Seven Sisters game. I don't know what it is about that game. Seven Sisters? Yeah, if you go in that row and go up, there's a game, and it's like, I think it's Seven Sisters or something. Jeff, in fact, check me right now. Of course.
    30:24
    Literally, you shoot the ball out, and there's flippers. There's flipper buttons, but there's one flipper in the middle, and then it drains down this side. I have never seen this game. Yeah, right? It's amazing.
    30:36
    Thanks for sharing your amazing game with us. It's like wood rail, and then it's like, okay, well, this thing doesn't do shit. But you shoot it up, it comes down, you flip it into the thing, into another lane, and it has a buck, and it kicks it to another thing. It's called Seven Sisters? Seven Sisters, Nine Sisters, something like that. It's very cool. Very unique.
    31:04
    Every year I go there, I'm like, oh, I need my own. So you've been holding out on the Memphis for a couple years? Yeah, I'm going to have to make an effort to check this out. Right, dude? Like, come on. I try and show you. You guys want to find cool things. Where's the feel? Well, it's kind of hilarious. My game from last year was the Inner Flip Dragon, the one that I walked away loving. And then, of course, this year we end up with a new in-box Inner Flip Dragon. Look at the layout on that play-thru. We're going to end up with it back, I think. Yeah, it's getting traded back in, which is awesome. I wasn't that mad about that. We'll play it a little bit, and then it'll probably end up back out for sale, which someone will end up very, very happy with it. So this is seven sisters, you said? Nine sisters? Nine. Nine sisters. Let me see, Corb. Three blondes, three redheads, three brunettes. Look at the flyer. Oh, my.
    31:49
    Yeah, that's old school. The layout of that game is just crazy. Literally, there's two pictures of it on Pennside. Yeah, it comes up and does a little bounce back and come down through the pops or whatever. And then there's one flipper. Dude, hinge front door for easy servicing. That's important. This is 53. Did it say 53 was the year? Which is like so early. That's very early. That's early. Yeah. It's a very cool game. Interesting. Hmm. Corbin? Every year, it's like end of the line. I'm like, what am I going to buy? No, it's December of 1953.
    32:22
    That's wild. So. The value. I need my phone to look at my pictures. Oh, sorry. No, you're good. I'd say my favorite. So I played a lot of No Fear because I love that jump ramp, which we also played. High Speed 3. Yeah, we played that in Columbus a bunch too when I was down there. You were vibing on that whenever we were at the downtown pins. Five, four, five, four, five in a row? You had six. Six jumps in a row. And it felt, I'm not going to lie, each jump felt better than the last. You know what I'm talking about in that game? When you connect with that, when it comes up around the top right and you hit that, and it does it again and again and again, boom. Dude, that felt awesome. So I'm in the other room playing Spider-Man. No one was witnessing my killer game. Having a great time. I'm like, where the fuck is Jeff? And Corbin comes running in from the other room. He's like, all right. Because I won, like, four credits on it. I'm like, come play these credits with me. There's, like, two things you need to know. One, I just hit that loop six times in a row. Yeah. And two, no fear is 50 cents a game right now. It is. So we went over there and we're jamming on that. So, okay, but VFW, my favorites. So Twin Wind, I thought that was very cool. Yes. Because it's a non-traditional with, like, no plunger. That was in Clay's little room area. Yeah, no plunger. Most of my favorites, I think, were in that little room area this year. So, like, there's no plunger. There's no nothing. And you said you'd played that beer before, but I don't remember it, so I thought that was very cool. And it was like another one of those, like, you hit different things and you advance your little car around the spots. So that one was up there. Faces, which was a Sonic game. That one in past times. Yep. And I just thought that, I mean, the art on it for me was like, it's just, it didn't have, like, cool mix necessarily, but the art was super cool. Some of those old ones, the arts are crazy. I'd say Faces and then Mars Track, both those next to each other. The art on both of them was just like... And I think we all noticed, too, why would you have these in a special place? And it's like, those games were nice. Yes. Yeah, at first I was a little bit like, these are random ones to have in your little kitchen. But then I played them and I'm like, oh, these are brand new? Like, what the fuck? Yeah. Like, they were very... They played great. They were strong. That whole room had some very unique stuff in it. So, like, I definitely enjoyed those. Big Bang Bar was I know I always rant and rave about it but like every time I play it the more I play it I'm like God I love this game I need you to play it where you can hear the call outs Yeah I'd love to play it that way Amazing I sent Jeff an ad last night and it's like somebody's trying to sell whatever Yeah I was in that text message too Metallica It was Metallica Yeah and then the Today reposted the same pictures with Big Bang Bar blacked out.
    34:59
    Because they brought out so much. How many did he get? People, there's like two for sale for a little while, I think. Well, that's what I told... The ones I get to pick up in Canada or something. Well, that's what I told Kyle. I'm like, if he ever wants to sell Truck Stop, he just needs to put Elvira up for sale with Truck Stop in the background, and then everyone's just going to be asking about Truck Stop.
    35:17
    Everyone cares about what's in the background, not the game that's actually for sale. Say we were selling a car, you know, what's in the background? What's going on in the back of that picture? What's that bike there? Yeah, what do you got there? What's going on? Definitely my favorite. We got America's Most Haunted for sale. Ten grand. Well, we had posted, I had posted a picture of your Elvira with the powder coating up and, of course, Spooky comments on it and they're like, Mmm, America's Most Haunted alert. And no shit. Which is phenomenal. Yeah, Spooky, you know, there's no secret that it's in this video. You didn't comment on, like, our giant, fucking, giant Spooky. Right, you commented on it. Yeah. They're always watching. Spooky experience. experience it's okay it's okay america's most haunted alert what was something that spoke to you up at vfw zach anything uh the normal you know joust pinball is always a blast big bang bar um i cannot play blackwater a few you know a few times from there i also found some random gotley don't remember her name or nor did i take a picture of it uh that's my job right jeff takes all the pictures yeah yeah uh you shoot the ball it shoots it up into this mini like playfield first and you play up there for a while and then it drops down to the big place that was a wide body i remember you telling me about it was a dimension 80 yeah i was in that row um it's just something different cool all right so my game other than killer game on uh rudy's nightmare i put up graham champ whatever you managed to play without breaking it it didn't break for one gametron too i couldn't i couldn't hear it but i had a good game on it so my my runner up was a Gottlieb Arena, which has another awesome skill shot. You shoot it, and then there's a little, almost like pegboard type thing to where it goes in big circles into little circles, and you're trying to get it into either a million point shot or something else, and that game was just speaking to me for some reason. That was my runner-up. I found an EM called Teacher's Pet, where at the bottom of the playfield our kid is punching a kid in the face. Yes! Oh, yeah. I've always wanted to play that game for Mom, because it is hilarious. So another Yep that's definitely what's happening Right in the nose Right in the kisser So VFW another successful visit The big green bus was at the back of the parking lot MB was serving tacos Just as Kyle predicted It was just a fun day We had the full compliment We had the snow cone bros We had Tank the dog Shut up about 430 Angelica yeah we had Phil Keith myself Kyle obviously everyone at the table it was a good time so again if you missed it there's going to be a follow up performance for 2024 in October it's a toy drive that they do for charity I thought we were trying to keep less people there no it's for charity or is that the canned good one that could be the canned good one or it's just us Anyway. So definitely if you're liking what you're hearing and even, I mean, there were people who were flying in. It's an experience. I'd say if you're within a three to five to seven hour drive. There were people that flew in. Screw it, man. If you're in America, you should come. If you're in the continental United States, you should probably show up. I talked to people from the Carolinas. We've gone to shows for, you know, Colorado, wherever. All over the place. So VFW, 10 out of 10, would recommend. We'll go again. Just a lot of games you're never going to see. No, absolutely. A lot of pinball. The way they play is just. It's like I've been there a few years in a row now, and now it's like, you've got to go look at this or look at that. It's like, all right, I saw that, I saw that, and then you discover something else. Yep, definitely. I'm at the point now where I've been there enough times to where I'm not as awestruck and overwhelmed. I'm able to go from game to game and go, okay, I've not played this. That's my goal for Olympics this year is to kind of just slow down. Well, you guys spend a lot of time in line for TNA. For you. Yeah, we walked out, bud. We still hopped in.
    39:20
    Tank missed it by going to the bathroom. And I'll say every second was worth it. It was. We all played terrible, but it was still worth it. I wish I played better, but... No, it was phenomenal. So, post-VFW, we did the full Airbnb again. This time was a two-car detached garage where we could put the pinball machines. We had a few out there, actually. We set up Tales from the Crypt, Frankenstein, TNA, Pulp Fiction, and Barrios. Barbecue, baby. So we got those set up. We played some games out there. Where are we? Lansing? Yeah, East Lansing. Like an hour in the wrong direction, technically? Yeah.
    40:05
    It turns out, whenever the graduation for the University of Michigan is the same weekend And as VFW, when you're looking for an Airbnb for 14 people, sometimes you've got to go a little bit out of the way. So maybe they just didn't want us there. Could have been. We had another small bus incident while we were there. Zach was backing up the bus. The neighbors to the left of the house were calling the Airbnb owners, letting them know that we couldn't block all the cars. Dude, they could have got out. And I'm back down the tight driveway. It was far before that. So, as it turns out, the bus attracts some attention. Always does. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes indifferent. Mostly bad. Yeah, but we got the game set up. Definitely. It attracts good attention. That was a double pizza night, though, because we had first pizzas delivered and then second pizzas delivered. Then we got first pizzas, Tank and Jellica. Wet and dry. Oh, you saw that Mustang wreck. Typical Mustang behavior. We taught that dog to drive. Watch out for Mustang's driver. Nah, he didn't drive. wife wife wifey the master remember because we had pinballs at his wedding that's right yeah yeah we were all there and then the second pizza was delivered later on so that was making jeff happy with the double pizza night that was remember that one that was left over was not good yeah the second pizza was uh some uh yeah yeah not the greatest but it is what it is it did its job so let's talk some events here corbin because we've got some stuff coming up we've got unhitched with barrios and actually pulp fiction i think i can probably read the menu that they they're making a menu aren't they yeah i got it oh uh exclusive so they're doing like an event like event theme menu that are you know obviously pulp fiction they're doing a burger for that and then unhitched for barrios now that's a tasty here we go so the food the food specials for So I should start off with, it's going to be Saturday, June 1st. Correct. We're doing our classic, like... Noon to 3. She has 4 to 7 on this thing. Yeah, that's not right. Noon to 3. Yeah, noon to 3. Yeah, noon to 3, our normal unhitched thing on this Saturday. So we're doing the Smashburger for Pulp Fiction. So it's going to be Royale with cheese, of course. Royale. Pork belly burnt end tacos, which I had those last time they ran those as a special. So they're going to be smoked pork belly, burnt ends tossed in buffalo barbecue sauce, Slaw, ranch drizzle May offer a crispy tofu option Interesting, not worried about that Either way Shout out Tia I think it does say in parenthesis for Tia So maybe she's going to come And then also A smoked chicken and waffle sandwich Belgian waffles Smoked chicken, slaw, barbecue Drizzle Served with chips and dip Not messing around So I'm just going to say There's going to be some top notch games. There's going to be some top-notch food. There's going to be some top beer there. There's a lot of options. In addition to Berrios and Pulp Fiction, you're going to have, what else is there? Fishtails. Fishtails? Where the hell have you been, dude? What did you put over there? Texas Canyon. Who the hell do you work for? I don't know who I stand for.
    43:30
    Mando. Maybe we'll bring John Wick back around. You probably can. It'll be around. Sitting in my garage.
    43:37
    So we did the Jonathan Wickersham. We had Mr. Jonathan Wickersham over there with the expression lights inside. The first one in the world. You were the first one in the world.
    43:48
    Pinball doesn't play. So, I mean, we're going to have some good games, good food. Good times. So I'd recommend coming out. There's going to be a winner. What are we going to do? Maybe a knockout or something? Yeah, we'll do a fun little knockout, a little three striker. Some prizes. Oh, there'll be some sweet prizes. I actually, Stern sent some pretty cool stuff. There's some Transformers stuff. Some stuff off of Mustangs. Really? Just out of the blue, a box shows up. I'm like, what's this? Nice. We have some Translites and stuff, too. So we have some goodies. I'm going to have you print some more of the Mad Pinball, Mad Scientist posters, too. I just don't understand our buddy Aaron Ridge. What do you mean?
    44:25
    He's insane. Well, yeah, because we did. So on Wednesday, John Wick, High Score Challenge. Corbin and I were playing the game. I think it was, Micah might have been, it might have been a three player Yeah and Micah Yeah And he just walks in He like yeah give me a pro whatever I give him your ball And he takes my third ball. My third ball. 95 million. Yeah, I had like 5 million. And I was over fixing something or doing something. I turn back. I'm like, 90 million? What the shit? Then he walks. He's like, you can have my two extra balls. I was like, god damn it. His one ball, he won the high score. Correct. With his one single ball. It wasn't me. It was Aaron's ball three. That's it. Difference between a high-end tournament player and us beer-drinking players. Olympic players. That's right. I'm more of an Olympic kind of guy. Attach a treadmill. We'll see how Aaron does then. Yeah, well, yeah, that would not go well. And his Crocs, I'm not sure it would be. This is the one event I can get Aaron at. It would be like Zach running in his steel-toed work boots. He did all right. He didn't fall. The tilt is what did me in. We're out at a decent score. You're going to wear some tennies this year? Probably. Everyone's laughing. I showed up ready. You were ready, other than you'd already downed a bunch of tacos. They were good. Those tacos, I cannot wait for. Honestly, on the way back up, they were probably better than some taco places I've been before. Going down. No, on the way back up, too. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I don't know, coming up. They were better than some going down. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. There was an event that we did where, or we didn't do it, but we participated. They had a pinball attached to a treadmill, and it was full sprint. So you just had to hop on. Level 10. Speed 10. And run. Incline 10. While you're trying to play pinball. And I won that championship. Champion. Corbin. A couple rounds later. Defending champion.
    46:15
    Yeah, the charismatic guy. I thought he was dying. Yeah. So we have the quarter-up anniversary event coming on June the 10th. Yes, and I believe it's their third or fourth? Third? I want to see. So it's not there. It's the Monday. It's their league. It's the league anniversary. It's their league anniversary. Correct. Which is going to be. I mean, there's going to be food. There's going to be – we're going to stack that for sure. So John Wick will be there, whatever the newest version that we have at that time, whether it's Pro, LE, or Premium. Oh, it's a four-year anniversary. That's what I thought, yeah, because last year was the third. So that will be the fourth year anniversary. The newest version of John Wick that we have will be there. Lebowski's there. Godzilla's there with the Cool Topper. We've got Twilight Zone there with the Cool Topper. Elton John's there. Spooky Looney Tunes. I mean, anything you want to play. Oh, I mean, I know this is old news these days, but there's Bond 60th there. I mean, there's whatever you want to play. There's games there. Is that where it's living? For now. Damn, I don't have to go for money. It'll come back in soon, but yeah.
    47:16
    It's got to earn its keep. So that's what's coming up on the events calendar. I know we're also going to be putting something on the books soon for Sweets and Geeks. We keep threatening to. Well, now it's happening because we just pulled Halloween out of Kyle's basement. It's ready to rock up there, and then we'll take maybe John Wick or something else cool up there to do a nice... I think that'd be a good combo. John Wick would be good there for sure. Nice five or six game little doodad coming up, so we're excited about that.
    47:45
    Cool Cats, I don't know. Have we talked about them yet? Yeah, we've talked about them. I just want to give them a little shout out. Definitely. Belden Village area, Cool Cats counter. Good food. They've got Creature. They've got Diner. They've got Jolly Jokers there. A little Papa Shot action. Air hockey.
    48:03
    It's definitely a place for adults and kids. Get in there. Go check it out. 100%. We're getting here towards the end. Approaching the hour mark. Kyle, any final takeaways here from recent happenings that you want to end on?
    48:23
    Got anything? Halloween plays nice for you I know that you were pretty excited About the Jaws updates And you were singing its praises And what not I mean you played a couple games I did The light show That's my take away of playing that in a home environment Is when you're able to play it With the lights down And everything else Like when it goes into night swim In this sort of environment it's so much better than in the arcade because it's just perfection.
    48:57
    Absolute perfection. Love it. Corbin, final thoughts? I do. I did. Yeah, no, that Whitewater is sick. I've been playing that a lot. I've definitely been playing that the most.
    49:16
    Did we tell the world we got a conga? They know. Cue down the music. Oh my God. As soon as I start talking, Kyle starts trying to cue me out with his fucking music every time. We need to let V talk. Can we talk about Congo for a second and talk about the Colin Jukebox? Zach is not allowed to talk about anything. Yes. Fucking A. This has to be talked about. All right, so first off. In depth. We had, so. We had a new mess with the Congo. I don't know if anybody, yeah. I don't know if you guys have heard or not. I was waiting until the end. Oh, you fired up. I didn't know that. I don't know if people know this or not, but we were looking for a Congo for a long time. Hot and heavy. Really? Yeah. I mean, we got one, though. Well, you still email us at FreshPremier.com. If you have another one, we'll send it. Anyway, so we were on the Congo hunt. We could link them. Yeah. We were looking. I heard that's possible.
    50:04
    So we found one. We have an opportunity up in Cleveland. Jeff's like, we got a guy. He wants a Venom Pro. It's like, this is a dream. And some cash coming our way. Done. Yeah. It was like, all right. Yeah, we'll head up there. So we head up there. We get up there. And the guy is a, he buys a lot of games from different people, different routes. buys out like large lump sums and then part pieces of mount cells and whatever cool interesting guy seems like a nice guy buys in bulk and then sells them pieces of them out yeah so we're up there looking we we check out the congo we're like yeah whatever we'll take it because we want to kind of go we're you know and this thing was nice it was nice it was it was untouched like as far as unless yes that's the perfect phrase all incandescent still all original feeling rubbers the coil it'd been sitting wherever it'd been sitting it'd been sitting for a minute because even like when i went through and before i even plugged the thing in i just went through it my hand and just actuated all the coils and stuff just to see what they all felt like and they all felt like they they felt free but like well one of the pops is fucked but i i'll fix that already but it felt like they uh just have been sitting in the same spot forever so we get up there and he's like talking about his jukebox room or how did he phrase it he called it something else he's like he's like my personal spot or something he's like my this is i have a an area where i keep my personal collection so he knew well i had introduced corbin and said corbin's last name angela and that and that immediately sparked something with him and he said oh come back here to my personal collection i want to show you guys something so he takes us from this warehouse area that's wet and dark yeah like puddles and big fans drying to this room that's like a high-end cigar bar with uh animal heads mounted on the wall and like animal uh skin rugs and whatever else and he has jukeboxes up and down in one pinball there godzilla godzilla but he walks us over to a wall and he has fine mahogany yeah leather bound books and he has a small little operator tag that says ziegler angeli on it and we start talking about it so on and so forth and We're talking about jukeboxes, you know, just shooting the shit, whatever. He's trying to find out what we have he can buy because he's like, I don't know if I can buy every game. Always looking for jukeboxes. Yeah, not having them. So either Corbin or I say – You did. You were like, you ever heard of this – the jukebox where you call in? Because, you know, we've been obsessed since – Oh, my God. We talked to my dad. Since dad was on, we've been obsessed with the whole, like, finding out more about this concept of, like, the jukeboxes where you call in and you'd request your songs. And then they'd play them on your location or you could play them at other people's locations. Like I need to know more because you can't find anything online. So Jeff said something like, have you ever heard about this? And he says, oh yeah. Come to my office. Come over to my office. So we go into his office where he has this enormous desk and one, and one, and one jukebox. Yeah. And the one jukebox he has in his office is a call in jukebox. It is. And he's, I got the headset at home. The girls used to wear, like he knew all the facts about this. Like I was so caught off guard that I was like, next time I got to focus on more on this. later, dude. Yeah, it's one of those things where I was completely caught off guard, and then he said, well, I don't just have one, I have three of them. And so he takes us back out into the warehouse, and he has another one that's basically a parts machine and whatnot, but I was just completely astounded, blown away, and aesthetically what it looked like. And I'll post this up on the Instagram. It wasn't what I expected it to look like. It was so cool. It was so cool to see, and just to talk to somebody about it, because he knew he was very, he knew about it and he would you know the operators used to bitch because they had to switch out the tags you know the papers every week and like and then i said something to my dad and he knew he's like well actually i think he drove me by in canton the building that they used to be like the central hub where they'd call into so the idea was it was during the war so they couldn't get records printed and whatever else because everyone was in on the war effort all manufacturing was for the war all right goods and services instead of getting 20 for the whole town or whatever get one they share with everybody exactly so that was the idea behind it is we're gonna have this this jukebox to where everyone calls into this central hub and you have one place that has the record that plays it for everybody it's just absolutely ingenious but so cool that definitely makes me think that we need to do a follow-up paul episode to where we'll do like the 70s or something i'd love to have him on maybe dolores we need dolores for sure and then uh i'd love to go back up to cleveland and talk with him and take my dad so they could maybe talk and just just observe absolutely sit and observe yeah it's one of those times where you get like two people who just start talking about you know this that and the other and something's going to spark an idea where we're going to hear a story that's going to be epic yeah absolutely absolutely so that was that was super cool so i mean not only did we end up with a congo which i have back at the house i'm i'm currently half it's with a minty volcano. The volcano's good. The Amy is good. The plastic everything is, it's all there. It's a time capsule. It is and I'm just in the process of putting it back together right now. I'm a little stalled that white water came in so that slows me. Then it got nice out so then I'm like I'm outside a lot like I gotta go inside and work. It's nice though to have something under a layer of grease. Oh yeah. I would so much prefer to find it like that than to find it like where somebody else tried to like you know mod it out themselves and do the shitty work to it and do this like janky ass shit which like i would much rather be dirty incandescent i'll put leds and i'll clean it that's fine i don't want you to fucking i don't want people to fuck with i'd rather do it no let me fuck it up this explicit episode of the fresh pinball podcast is brought to you in part by angelique stark novelty Buck it up.
    55:45
    So, yes, Congo has been acquired. It's in process once it's ready to go. It definitely needs to spend some time at the CERN of a residence. It will not be going to the Zach, Ollie, Max residence because they have all the good pinball right now. They literally do. If you talk about Zach's lineup, like – All right, here's the lineup real quick. Let's go. I'm not going to shit on some, like, barcades around the country. Literally. Corvette, Big Guns, Taxi, Earthshaker, Funhouse, Flipper Football, Scared Stiff, Revenge from Mars, A Kiss, Captain Fantastic, Pulp Fiction, Tall and New Glide, TNA, and John Wick. Oh, with the expression lights. So, Zach's house is, yeah, literally puts some arcades to shape right now. Plus a play choice, a Jowl sit-down, and a Pac-Man. Cabriolet He's not messing around It's the real deal Take care of my security I don't think we got anything Have we got any other Recent acquirers? I mean Tongo is the big one We brought in that X-Men LE Which did not speak To me or you Or your dad So we went ahead And moved that on You didn't even have Any time with it I thought you'd want Some time with it Before you sold it It just wasn't there I played it like A handful of times Here's the problem Whitewater spoiled me Yeah Whitewater I'm so glad that you I've had a love for Whitewater for so long that I'm glad that's in my top five now. X-Men and Rush are the same fucking thing. Cheers to that. X-Men? No. It's similar, but it's... With those things that pop up out of the play field? Borg. All of Borg's games are a combination of his other games. I mean, everybody's games are a combination of some... I feel like any game you can trace back to some EM or something. Thank you, Jonathan Wickersham. Yes. But if you walk over to Jaws, you don't look at that and go, oh man, this is just a reconfiguration of another one of his games. Elwin has some, he's pretty unique each time. But by the time he creates as many layouts as John Borg has, he may be recycling some things eventually because... Does anybody know what Pat Lauer's doing? He's retired, man. He's retired. Toy Story was his last, right? He's got that workshop out back. He's tinkering with something. He's tinkering. You know a creative mind like his can't stop. We should talk to George about maybe putting us in touch with Pat. I'm telling you right now who I want on this podcast next, and I'm John Norris. I want John Norris on this podcast. Do it, dude. I'm speaking this into existence. I need some John Norris. That's the only way to do it. We peaked with George, so we got to get back up. We do. I mean, we've taken a break now for a week or something. I think if we get George. Nobody's mad that it's going to be summer and that they don't have new kids. Pat Lawler, John Norris. We're doing some right now. Like we're talking about the Mount Rushmore here. We're going to sustain this shit. We will. I'm in.
    58:41
    All the goodness. What do you mean sustain? We're going to sustain this. We're on the road. No, no, no. The listener.
    58:47
    We peaked. I know. Consistency. That's what we're all about. All right, Kyle. Cue up some Mad Pinball jingle here. If you need something, email Corbin at Fresh Pinball. or I'm sorry, at mattpinball.com He's tired of just getting bills. He needs to get some other items other than just invoices that need to be paid. Corbin at mattpinball.com Jeff at mattpinball.com I'll talk to you now. You let your email ignore you.
    59:24
    I'm on an email cleanse right now. Thanks everybody. We'll see you again. Cheers.